Octavia - JD Power - how the hell?

[harrylime]

I just read how well the Octavia has done in the JD Power dependability survey over the last few years , winning in 2019. My question is, given the widespread tales of woe relating to the DSG gearbox and the TSI engines kangarooing, including attempts to reject cars, how the hell did Skoda manage it?. It's all very contradictory.

 

[donny1972]

Simple buy a manual🤣

[JKW]

I've had two Octy's since 2013 (now have a Karoq) & never had a moments problem with them, all DSG versions, the Karoq the 1.5 TSI petrol, whilst  the  Octavia's 1.6 diesels. My own experience can well understand, & approve of, the JD Power result, they're great cars !

[classic]

24 minutes ago, harrylime said:

I just read how well the Octavia has done in the JD Power dependability survey over the last few years , winning in 2019. My question is, given the widespread tales of woe relating to the DSG gearbox and the TSI engines kangarooing, including attempts to reject cars, how the hell did Skoda manage it?. It's all very contradictory.

 

 

Because the 1.0/1.2/1.4 and vRS petrols and 1.6/2.0 tdi diesels are on the whole, dependable. Many a dsg has reliably provided service well into hundreds of thousands of miles.

There does seem to be an issue with 1.5 act engines, across all the vag range but equally lots of people on here have no problem.

If you ask enough and search on here you will find forum users who heavily criticise the Octavia 3. Personally I don’t have any rattles or squeaks, no issues with the suspension or engine. Barely uses any oil, no coolant, tyres all wear evenly, climate works spot on (I get it serviced by an Aircon specialist every 2 years). I’ve taken mine to the South of France, and it’s going across Europe again next month. I wouldn’t do that if it wasn’t comfortable, nice to drive, reliable and economical. No doubt the contributors to JD Power agree.

 

[Guest]

Ever heard of the phrase "The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill"?  People often forget that other manufacturers have their problems too.

 

Go to any forum you want and you'll see people complaining about this, that and t'other. It's very rare you find people praising, forums are usually full of those who either wish to vent off frustration or ask others about problems. Forums are not a reflection of how the vast majority of owners view the cars they own.

[Bugginbob]

I’ve just ordered my Octy VRS. I currently have a Discovery Sport. Trust me a Skoda Octavia can’t possibly be more unreliable than my Disco. So maybe every other manufacturer is just worse

[ahenners]

For every 1 owner with an issue, there's probably 10, 20, or 50+ owners without any issues. On internet forums you'll see more from the minority with issues, than the majority without.

 

I've done over 40k since I bought my Octavia and in that time, bar one random issue, it's been utterly faultless and needed nothing apart from tyres and servicing. It's not a perfect car, but it does everything I ask it to do, with little fuss, it's not expensive to run, nor was it particularly expensive to buy. I'm fairly happy with mine.

[brad1.8T]

My previous partner had a Masters in applied social research and statistics and worked in community consultation / community needs research.

 

My current partner is one of the leading researchers / statisticians in shopper behaviour.

 

Based on what I've seen, if you word the questions right you can get any answer you want.

 

Also, there's only a certain sector of society that answer surveys despite incentives that may be offered, so the sample will always be skewed.  EG:  You'll never get a multi-millionaire to answer a survey about their 7 series or Roller

Edited 18 July, 2019 by brad1.8T

[Ootohere]

This is a place where there are likely to be Skoda Octavia owners or drivers.

?

How many filled in a JD Power Survey this year, last year or any year.

Or and other Car survey for new or used cars.

 

I have asked similar over the years when there are posts on JD Power surveys on Briskoda and only ever a few people rely to say they did a survey.

 

Too many Sales People have time sitting twirling their pens and doing surveys rather than getting familiar with the cars they are meant to be selling.

 

MG sales people in the past seem to have had lots of filling in survey time as well as Skoda employees.

[WesternDuke]

On my second vRs DSG TSi and have had no problems on either. People are always very quick to complain, particularly when following on from another's comments. It seems with internet forums that 'good news doesn't sell'.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Roottootemoot said:

How many filled in a JD Power Survey this year, last year or any year.

 

 

Me - for both my cars.

[Ootohere]

vRS models might be 20% of Octavia registrations / sales in the UK, and pretty reliable other than the Water Pump issues in what ever percentage of the 20% vRS or vRS TDI's,

so that might be a good news story.

Of the other 80% Octavia models maybe just a low percentage have issues, so more good news.

 

But then all the Skoda sold / registered in the UK in a year are not as much as all the Ford Fiesta registered so given the Octavia being Skodas to seller it really comes down to a low volume seller.

 

the good news is that so few Skoda are actually sold / first registered each year in the UK that any Warranty work required should be able to be done quickly, 

and Skoda UK / VW UK should be right on top of issues / snagging faults.

 

It all sounds like buying a Skoda in the UK should be a great experience in the main.

Pity some dealerships or their staff spoil that from the off, from the ordering, to the PDI to any small niggling issue that they can turn into a PITA.

[Auric Goldfinger]

I / we ( Mrs G ) have only had Skoda's since 1999. think we have had around 26 or 27 in total and I have only had problems with one My Ex 66 plate Octavia 230 had to have a new VAQ changed as the first on broke.  Other than that only minor niggles.  we have looked at various brands over the years but always come back to Skoda.

 

We like them 

[KenONeill]

JD Power surveys don't just measure reliability of "problem components"; they measure the total ownership experience of all cars owned by people who complete the surveys. I'm sure that Brad1.8t will agree that this builds in some positive selection bias (but that will apply to all makes and models).

 

This effectively means that treating the majority who just want a service for their new car well will outweigh the issues that some people have with their treatment regarding a problem component.

[penguin17]

12 hours ago, Bugginbob said:

I’ve just ordered my Octy VRS. I currently have a Discovery Sport. Trust me a Skoda Octavia can’t possibly be more unreliable than my Disco. So maybe every other manufacturer is just worse

This.  

 

As bad as you think the Octavia is, there's much worse out there, and it's not always the likes of Citroen, Fiat and co.  There's some unhappy Merc, BMW and Audi owners out there too.  Even the Japanese aren't immune with tales of woe from Toyota and Nissan owners, particularly with electrical problems. 

 

I take comfort in knowing that VW group like to use the Skoda factories for certain production as they are more efficient and competent than some of the established VW/Audi factories.  I initially thought it was 'cheap labour' but apparently it's not that; Skoda are just better at some manufacturing stages. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alex-W]

This thread is making me nervous, I have to say.

 

Being generally a fan of Jap cars, my decision to buy Skoda was more with head than heart as 

1. They seem to be value for money

2. The Octy is incredibly practical with it's huge boot and legroom. 

3. My logic is they're largely Golf under the skin (for less money) and people rave about Golfs...

4. My parents have an '01 Octavia 110 Diesel which is still going strong with no serious issues.

5. I could actually buy a top of the range quick car without having to get an AMG or silly expensive to run M car (I don't like buying mid range cars, I'd rather buy the top model of a cheaper car so I don't get annoyed when I see a better one pass me).

 

I wonder if I made the right choice now...

[juan27]

9 hours ago, Roottootemoot said:

This is a place where there are likely to be Skoda Octavia owners or drivers.

?

How many filled in a JD Power Survey this year, last year or any year.

Or and other Car survey for new or used cars.

 

I have asked similar over the years when there are posts on JD Power surveys on Briskoda and only ever a few people rely to say they did a survey.

 

Too many Sales People have time sitting twirling their pens and doing surveys rather than getting familiar with the cars they are meant to be selling.

 

MG sales people in the past seem to have had lots of filling in survey time as well as Skoda employees.

 

But wouldn't that apply equally to other brands?

[Ootohere]

@juan27

Maybe & maybe their staff are too busy actually selling cars and giving customer service to be filling in surveys.

 

Not unknown for there to be 'fixed' figures from VW like happened in Germany in the past.

 

?

So how many more Octavia owning members on here are coming forward to say they did the JD Power Survey this year on in previous years?

Edited 18 July, 2019 by Roottootemoot

[juan27]

1 hour ago, Alex-W said:

This thread is making me nervous, I have to say.

 

Being generally a fan of Jap cars, my decision to buy Skoda was more with head than heart as 

1. They seem to be value for money

2. The Octy is incredibly practical with it's huge boot and legroom. 

3. My logic is they're largely Golf under the skin (for less money) and people rave about Golfs...

4. My parents have an '01 Octavia 110 Diesel which is still going strong with no serious issues.

5. I could actually buy a top of the range quick car without having to get an AMG or silly expensive to run M car (I don't like buying mid range cars, I'd rather buy the top model of a cheaper car so I don't get annoyed when I see a better one pass me).

 

I wonder if I made the right choice now...

 

I bought a 2010 VRS new kept it for seven years (longest I've ever kept my main car in 30+ years) and it was the most reliable car I'd ever owned. Replaced it with a 2017 VRS again bought new and it has been completely faultless for two years other than a stop/start fault fixed with a software update.   Its a safe choice.  Of course no brand is risk free.

[Freakcrab]

It's very rare for someone to start a forum thread "HELP! Car working fine, AGAIN!".  As many have said it's a self selecting sample.

I'm on my third Octavia since 2002 so I guess I'm really happy with my luck thus far.  Current one will be three years old in November and it's the only car I've not had to use the warranty on.

[Alex-W]

The thing is, I'd kinda expect any car to be pretty faultless after 7 years.  My wife's Mazda is 8 years old and I think of that as pretty new and expect no issues.  

At 2 years it's pretty much just run in...

 

I bought my Honda when it was 7.5 years old and only really started getting a few problems when it was 15+ years old.  Apart from a small battle with rust, it's still extremely reliable at 20years.

[juan27]

26 minutes ago, Alex-W said:

The thing is, I'd kinda expect any car to be pretty faultless after 7 years.  My wife's Mazda is 8 years old and I think of that as pretty new and expect no issues.  

At 2 years it's pretty much just run in...

 

I bought my Honda when it was 7.5 years old and only really started getting a few problems when it was 15+ years old.  Apart from a small battle with rust, it's still extremely reliable at 20years.

 

Well all I can say is look how many Octavia taxis are about.   Taxi drivers wouldn't run something that needs to be in the garage all the time.  

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Alex-W said:

The thing is, I'd kinda expect any car to be pretty faultless after 7 years.  My wife's Mazda is 8 years old and I think of that as pretty new and expect no issues.  

At 2 years it's pretty much just run in...

 

I bought my Honda when it was 7.5 years old and only really started getting a few problems when it was 15+ years old.  Apart from a small battle with rust, it's still extremely reliable at 20years.

 

I bought three new Hondas in the 90's, and suffered a dud battery in the Civic's keyfob, that's how reliable they were. I kept each car for 3yrs or around 24k miles.

 

After 14mth of buying a new Honda in 2015, I sold it due to on going problems which Honda couldn't fix - the worst, most frustrating car I've ever owned. The experience with Honda UK, the supplying dealer and my local dealer was so bad I swear I'll never walk inside another Honda showroom in my life.

 

Every manufacturer has problems, you just have to be lucky.   

Edited 18 July, 2019 by Guest

[J.R.]

If you buy second hand and buy wisely, if you never ever cross the threshold of a garage let alone a main dealer and do all your own servicing and repairs (if any are needed) gaining the knowledge you need from forums like this you will have boosted the reliability factor of your vehicle and your own satisfaction ten fold if not hundred fold.

 

The cause of 99% of the angst and often the cause of further ongoing problems are the main dealers and to a lesser extent the other garages.

 

Granted you wont have a loan car and your car wont be valeted while they are (not) looking at a problem = just keep booking it back in until he gets fed up.

 

I bought a mega high mileage Octavia 1.9 11O TDi in 2004 dirt cheap as a gamble, if it lasted a year I would be quids in, it was 100% reliable and over a further 13 years I took it up to 325000 miles without it ever letting me down or missing a beat, only scrapped it because 3 out of 4 doors were deadlocked and I could buy an identical spec and colour MK2 in superb condition, low mileage, FSH for buttons, a fifth of what I paid for the one that had started with double the mileage and served me so well.

 

Electronically this one is far more needy, I quickly bought VCDS which would ironically have resolved the door locking problems on the MK1, that had been so reliable though that I never needed to buy it and had not even heard of it.

[ords]

On 17/07/2019 at 19:46, donny1972 said:

Simple buy a manual🤣

Boo😏